Food Pantries
Starting in 1988 with one regularly scheduled food pantry and eight other sites offering “emergency food as available,” Hope-Net congregations now operate eight food pantries. In recent years, the schedules of these pantries have been coordinated so that at least one is open every day of the week.
In 2004 Hope-Net served over 100,000 people, and has served over 1 million people since its founding. Those 110,000 persons have received groceries for over 300,000 meals this past year. These meals include groceries for our low-income clients and ready-to-eat food for homeless clients.
Hope-Net food pantries are staffed by volunteers who contribute more than 8,800 hours of their time annually, and to better serve our clients, volunteers are often bi-lingual. The work of these generous, committed volunteers are supported by Hope-Net’s professional staff.
Hope-Net serves groceries to the needy and those on the margins of our society who have experienced trauma and are so marginalized that they are too frightened to come to a food pantry at all. Hope-Net works with two agencies, the Program for Torture Victims, and Oportunidad, to bring food directly to these persons.
Hope-Net is proud not only of what we do but how we do it. Hope-Net ensures that all pantries are safe and hospitable places for those coming in need, particularly for low-income immigrants. As much as possible, we try to safeguard individual and family privacy and create a sense of dignity for all. The majority of Hope-Net’s clients are immigrants to the United States; 39% speak little or no English. Hope-Net always tries to provide healthy and nutritious foods while being sensitive to our clients’ ethnic cooking traditions.
The following chart is a sample of the number of persons served annually:
| Year | Persons Served |
| 2002 | 90, 077 persons |
| 2003 | 106,895 persons |
| 2004 | Over 110,000 persons |
